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Nobody had told me that moving would be so lonesome. I had moved from Texas to Hungary in order to try and get out on my own for a change, escape my home of so many years. My parents thought I was crazy. A single girl, moving to Europe in 1963? Especially a country like Hungary, still reeling from the revolution that shook the country only nine years ago? They thought for sure something terrible would happen to me. But I've been in Hungary for two months by now and the most threatening situations I've been in included catcalls from across the street.
I cannot deny that the cat calling and living on my own has made me slightly nervous. I love the neighborhood I am in but still, some nights I wake in fear because of noises I hear in the alleyway. I have few friends here, none of which would be close enough to help in an emergency. That brings me to today. Two days ago I had been perusing the personal ad's in the newspaper when I came across a peculiar 'for sale' listing.
The listing read 'For sale: Lavrador Pubby' and followed with the sellers phone number and address. I could only assume with the spelling of 'puppy' that the lister was not from Hungary originally, or had put in the request when they were extremely drunk. I wanted the protection and assurance that a dog could provide for me as a woman living alone. Plus, the dog would provide me with a friend in a still strange city, someone who I could confide in with no worries. Despite the misspellings in the ad, I called them up and took their offer.
When I had called, I was half surprised that a woman had answered. She introduced herself as Zoé and sounded as if she was my age, and spoke eloquently, with no trace of any accent. She spoke perfect Hungarian, which confirmed my suspicion that she had been drunk when listing the advertisement. She had picked up on my accent immediately, but when I introduced myself as 'Grace', my foreign name tipped her off to my identity already. There was a hesitance in her voice when I inquired about the puppy. Still, we had arranged a meeting for today.
It was overcast and cool, so walking to the womans apartment 30 minutes away was not as miserable as it could have been. I made the mistake of wearing my nicest pair of kitten heels, which hurt to walk in after awhile, but I had convinced myself that I should wear them for reasons that escape me now. To prove that I had money? That I could present myself nicely? That I would be a responsible dog owner?
Whatever it was, it had escaped me by now, and it was too late to turn back, I was at her apartment door. I searched for her name and rang the buzzer, and then waited.
I began to become nervous after awhile, my call being unanswered for quite some time, but finally I saw a woman rushing down the stairs to throw open the entrance gate.
"Sorry I took so long, please come in and follow me, close the gate behind you." She said quickly, all in one breath, and then turned and hurried up the stairs again. I turned to close the gate as she said with haste, and then gathered my skirt and followed her swiftly up the stairs.
I had only gotten a glance at her appearance, but the first thing that stood out to me were her eyes. They were haunting, in a beautiful way, reminding me of Luisa Casati, dark and ghostly, yet beautiful. Her long hair whipped around her face as she hurried around, not turning back to check on me as I stumbled up the stairs behind her.
Our trek stopped on the fourth floor finally, Zoé in front of me taking a key out of her pocket and unlocking the front door of her apartment, and motioned towards me to follow behind her. By the time I've stepped into her apartment, she has already walked further in, leaving me to shut the door behind myself and look around. It's small but well lit, with psychedelic music posters lining the walls, some with corners ripped off of them, making it evident that these were most likely ripped off the walls of bars and not obtained legally.
I slowly walked into the main part of the apartment once it was obvious that the woman would not be coming back to fetch me. It seemed that there were only two rooms, the kitchen, which lead off to the left, and Zoé's bedroom, the walls again lined with posters. It seemed that all the music posters were reserved for the hallway, though, as her bedroom was filled with film posters, again with corners ripped off. The one above her bed was the only one I could recognize , 'Babette Goes to War', which I had seen before coming to Hungary. Her entire room was so cool I couldn't help but be a bit jealous. Mine was bland as I hadn't brought any decorations from home. Zoé was the exact type of person I would have never met in my small town, the kind of person that I dreamed of being when I moved out.
The walls were also lined with polaroid photos, all obviously taken by Zoé, strange closeups of her own face along with the faces of what I assumed to be her friends, along with photos of men asleep on the train and what appeared to be fish laying in patches of grass.
The entire room was distracting, but the most distracting room by far was the lamb that was standing directly in the center of the room, fenced off in a shambled mess of a homemade pen, with chairs holding up chickenwire to fence off the lamb.
Zoé was nervously gathering her hair up into a bun with a clip, her eyes darting back and forth from me to the lamb.
"That... Is not a labrador puppy." I said, stating the obvious.
"I know, I know I'm sorry!" Zoé said, nervously adjusting her sweater from where it had fallen down her shoulder. The lamb bleated pitifully up from it's enclosure. "I went on a walk at four am the other day and I just found it wandering around on the street! I couldn't leave it there so I carried her up to my apartment. But I knew I couldn't keep it so I meant to put an ad in the paper, but I got drunk and submitted one for a 'lavador pubby' instead and then I completely forgot about it until you called. I was hoping you would be able to take her anyway...?" Zoé trailed off.
I stood there staring at Zoé in perplexment. If it hadn't been for the sincerity that Zoé had in her voice, I would have felt that I was being antagonized and fooled, but the desperation on her face showed.
I sighed.
"I own an apartment that is smaller than this, I'm afraid." I said, as I bent down to take off my shoes, then climbed into the enclosure with the lamb, watching Zoé's eyes widen. "But, my family did own a farm in the United States. We had sheep there, I can check her over." I said as I gathered the lamb into my arms, shushing it as it bleated, checking it's gender and feeling along it's body. "She's a girl, and she's a bit malnourished, but she seems healthy besides that." I said and released the lamb, stroking it's back as it slid a bit on the linoleum floor in Zoés' apartment, despite the newspaper covering it. I looked up at Zoé from where she was standing over me and the lamb, watching. "You've done a good job taking care of her so far."
Zoé half nodded at my remark, and then seemed to steel herself before she climbed into the enclosure with me and the lamb. There was barely any room with all three of us in there now, so Zoé and I were pressed up against each other, knees brushing, while the lamb stood in front of us. I continued to run my hand up and down it's back, Zoé's hand joining mine, our fingers brushing occasionally.
"What should I do with it...?" Zoé asked quietly, her hand stilling, her face turning towards mine. I turned to look at her, our faces only a few inches apart. I could see concern written on her face, the worry she had for the lamb was evident.
"Well, before I came here I was looking to buy a dog- a real dog, not a lamb." I said, half smiling at Zoé. "I read that about an hour away by car there is a farm that had a few puppies for sale. I decided to come here instead as you lived close to me, but if you have a car I could accompany you out there and try and trade the lamb for a puppy?" I said, and watched the smile on Zoé's face grow.
"You think they'd take her?" Zoé asked.
"I'm sure they would, if they have sheep there already, a female lamb that's practically free should excite them." I said.
Zoé smiled and brushed her hand against my thigh, tightening her fingers against it briefly. "Alright! We have a plan." She said and then stood up, before looking back down at me. "Thank you for this, Grace. Really."
I smiled shyly up at her before ducking my head. "It's nothing, really..."
When Zoé didn't respond I looked up again, and her hand was in front of my face. "Okay, up you go. Let's go." I grabbed Zoé's hand and she hauled me up. I clasped Zoé's hand in mine for a second as we stared at each other.
I had responded to the strangest ad in the paper and now I think I somehow found a friend for life. We had barely known each other for more than a handful of minutes but there was something in Zoé's eyes that told me she was thinking the same thing. We were cut from the same cloth, the same type of person, and now that we had met and collided, there was nothing that was going to tear us apart.
This was the beginning of something disastrously beautiful.
- vége -